Bargnani's salary and 5% trade kicker takes him to a $11.28M cap it next year.

If the Raps decline option on JL3, amnesty LK, and the luxury tax goes to $71.6M, they can take back up to 150% + $100K of salaries or $5M more.

Bargnani for Lin and T-Rob save the Rockets just $600k.

Plus they have Montiejunas on the roster who is a younger and better rebounding version of Bargnani.

Agreed, the cost savings mentioned are not appealing as stated - but could become so with creativity.

I like Donatas, but he hasn't proven anything in the NBA - certainly not to justify starting with Harden, Dwight, etc. on a contender. I guess the main issue with dealing Bargnani is perceived value. What do other GM's really think of him and his contract? Despite the negative, there are a lot of GM's who have had front row seats to Bargnani abusing their team's defense (and being abused under the glass).

The only way to bag a classy lady is to give her two tickets to the gun show... and see if she likes the goods.

Everybody saying Lin would make "a great backup" needs to go back, look at Lin's stats, and recognize that he's a starting-quality PG who's really only a year and a half into his career - and that his stats don't directly show his excellent basketball IQ and his remarkably positive locker-room presence. Trading Bargnani for Lin - which will never, ever happen, even if Houston signs Chris Paul, because in that case they'd need to shed salary - is a no-brainer. Frankly, any trade which gets us Lin and in which we don't give up Jonas, Amir or maaaaaaaybe DeMar is a no-brainer.

DeMar is a good help defender and under stands the rotations well hes awful for one on ones though, Jose was bad at both but at least tried and tried hard Bargnani was just lethargic......He didnt care about letting the team down.

Not sure I agree with the bolded. I could probably count on 1 hand the number of times DeRozan stepped in to take the charge (in his career).

In terms of good help defenders on the wing, Parker was our last one....and maybe MoPete before him.

When are teams allowed to start making trades and such? Ujirir said by July 1st thats 2 weeks away... I hope he makes that deadline. Im going to just go enjoy life to the fullest on the day Bargs is out of T.dot.

Well we know the Knicks are on the verge of desperation to move Amare. That's a step in the wrong direction however unless they toss in 1st rounders.

Biedrins straight up for Bargnani won't work under the CBA, correct? RJ straight up would however but that would be strictly a $12M cap dump play.

Would Washington do Emeka Okafor for Bargnani and Gray?

Maybe the Raptors end up having to wait until a team strikes out during FA and looks for trades to add talent?

I think your last part (Maybe the Raptors end up having to wait until a team strikes out during FA and looks for trades to add talent). Outside of last year Bargs has been a solid scorer every year & a decent 1 on 1 defender.
NBA is full of guys that can score, but not play D (Amare, Ellis...)

Not sure I agree with the bolded. I could probably count on 1 hand the number of times DeRozan stepped in to take the charge (in his career).

That's a bit of an overstatement, but he's certainly a below-average charge-taker. He's taken 45 charges in his career, or 0.18 per 40 minutes. League average for guards is 0.34 per 40 minutes, so he's well below average for his career. This past season, however, he had a career low, taking only 6 charges in more than 3000 minutes played (0.08 charges per 40 minutes).

It was supposed to happen. Elbow surgery isn't a joke, it affected his shot and it takes time to fix it. Same would go to Kevin Durant or other stars. Nerve/elbow/shoulder surgeries can be tricky.

No, your missing the point. If medial exams are supposed to spot injuries, how could the Raptors sign a guy with a jacked up elbow? It wan't until Landry was signed and thoroughly examined that the elbow issue was discovered.